See You Later Alligator!

Today was Makayla's last day at her preschool. She has been going there since she was about 2 years old. She received services for occupational, physcial, speech, and mental health when she first entered the school. Most of these delays were due to her home environment. Within the first 6-12 months of coming home to us, she had tested out in all therapies except for mental health due to her ADHD. So, today was a big milestone for her and our family. She has shown her teachers and therapists that she can do it! We are very proud of Makayla. And now she can enjoy one of her first summers school-free with Abi, Olivia, and I.


Olivia and I had a busy day. We took Makayla to school, went to the grocery store, and met Alex for lunch at Mi Burrito. We continued to run around for most of the day. I'm sure you don't need all the details. My point being: Olivia was pooped.

She's asleep behind those shades.


We played this great card game that I picked up at Target.
t was a deck of "I Spy" cards and we all had a blast with them! It helps the kids with their thought process and focus and it is fun for adults too! Always a plus.


And I must throw in how awesome Kris Allen did on Idol tonight. He is wonderful! And I feel like he gives Arkansas a good name (for once it seems like).

Family Dinners

One of my favorite things about Alex being home is all of us sitting down together at the table for meals. I enjoy cooking a lot more because I am always wanting to try new recipes and the girls don't really provide the feed back that is beneficial to improving the food.
We had turkey tacos and ice cream sundaes tonight. It was fun. We had a couple of new additions to our typical toppings.
The girls thought these waffle bowls were so fun. Abi was excited to be able to eat all of it.

And I was particularly excited about the marshmallow.


Good to the last drop

Peddling on the Blog

Chaps dress

Nick & Nora night gown

Target Cherokee Cardigan, 9 Month

Gymboree pink pants with confetti on bottom and Gymboree striped turtle shirt




I have quite a few outfits of Olivia's that she has out grown and hardly worn some of it. Most of the items are name brand: Old Navy, Gymboree, The Children's Place,Chaps. There are some Target Circo,Nick &Nora, and Babies-R-Us items too. I have been meaning to put them on Ebay or something but have yet to get around to that. Most of the clothes are 12-18 month. There are some that are a little smaller,but not many. I don't have a price on them yet. I'm willing to take offers. I will post the pictures that I have and if anyone is interested and wants to see more, just let me know!

Joys of the MotherHood

For the first time today, I hear nothing. Complete silence. It is FABULOUS! The kids are all down for a nap and there are so many things that I want to do with my down time that I have had a difficult time deciding which to do. I settled on watching some Food Network and working on the blog. Although I do have an excellent book ("The Toss of a Lemon" by a woman that lives in Fayetteville) that I am dying to see what happens next in. I have gotten in the habit of taking Olivia and Makayla to the library while Abi is at gymnastics and I have found some good reads.

Our day has been busy. The girls had their 6 month dental check up yesterday and Makayla has several weak spots on her teeth. She was prescribed fluoride to use every night. Olivia's teeth look great. Abigail had a pretty bad decaying spot on one of her molar teeth. The dentist was shocked about it though because last time she was there the tooth was perfect and now it was almost rotted down to the nerve. he had to hollow it out and put a permanent cap on it. He said she will have to keep that on there until she matures and then when she is about 17 or 18 she will need a permanent cap that is more realistic looking:white or clear. He said her tooth probably was like this because she had a high fever or was on antibiotics while the tooth hit a growth spurt. So we went back to the dentist today to have it capped. From there we went to Target to fill her prescription for pain, then to grab some lunch (at almost 2:00pm), then to get the girls hair trimmed, then to Kroger for some groceries.

Funny story about the dentist: He is a pediatric dentist so he refers to the children as "jellybean". Abi and KayKay thought this was hilarious when he called them that the first time they went to him (about a year and a half ago). Makayla looked at the dental hygienist and said "When is Mr. Jellybean comin' to see me?" It was great stuff!

I had several questions for the dentist regarding the girls' teeth. I have been concerned about their previous environment and what damage that could cause on their teeth. The dentist explained and showed us grooves in Olivia and Makayla's teeth that are caused from their biological mother using drugs while pregnant with them. They also were not feed properly and did not care for their teeth properly when they were young children. Their biological parents had really bad teeth (some of you have witnessed seeing that first hand). We are going to have to be extra careful with amount of sugar the girls have and be sticklers about brushing and flossing. They are at an extra risk of having major teeth issues. They have already had more dental work done than I have at 25.


Speaking of the girls previous lives: We rarely receive any contact from their biological family. I had a strong relationship with their grandmother, Anna,in the past, but, as the adoption neared becoming final, she began to allow the girls' biological parents to come in to her home again. At that point, I lost trust with her and no longer allowed her to see the children. They had been seeing her less and less over a period of time, so it wasn't that I took them away from her all of a sudden and the girls would have behavior issues after spending time with or talking to Anna on the phone. We had a message from Anna on our answering machine when we got back from our Memphis trip. It tears a little at my heart every time I hear from her. I feel bad that she is going through losing these precious babies because I know how she loves them. But I know that I have to stay strong and protect my children. They are thriving and doing so well and I don't want them to go back to being unsure of things. Anna asked that I send her pictures and let her know how the girls are. She is not asking much, but I always have this fear in the back of my mind that their old family will find out what school they go to, or where they are, and try to take them from us. I don't really want to send pictures because I don't want them to know what the girls look like as they grow up. I'm torn. Hearing from Anna always stirs up emotions for me.

On a lighter note:
Appalling story about the hair salon: Makayla was getting her hair trimmed and Abi,Olivia, and myself were waiting and watching when another lady that had just gotten her hair down proceeds to talk about breast implants. She tells everyone that she got implants the week before and was very proud of them. She then pulls her shirt up and shows them to everyone! Including my three young daughters! Abi's mouth almost hit the floor and she turned her head away from the woman quickly. It was appalling and hilarious to see Abi's reaction. The owner of the store apologized over and over to me for the woman doing that in front of the kids.

Mini Vaca in Memphis

I have been having issues with my blog lately. I am finally able to load pictures. You are in for a family photo explosion!

On Friday the girls and I drove to Memphis after Abi got out of school. Alex had to work and wasn't able to get to Memphis until Saturday. It was a little hectic trying to keep up with the girls and get everything situated at the hotel. Not long after we had gotten into our room, there was a knock on the door. It was room service! Alex had ordered us some trays of food so that I wouldn't have to drag the girls out by myself for supper. After we had eaten a little bit, I took the girls down to the pool and they had a great time. There were about 20 wild kids jumping and screaming in the pool so I kept the girls close. I was afraid a kid would land on one of the girls' heads and push them under water.




Alex arrived Saturday. It had begun to rain so we spent the day shopping. Yay for me! We went to the Oak Court Mall and (for those of you who haven't been) they have cute figurines through out the mall of children playing.I loved seeing all of the different poses: children jumping rope, a little girl playing dress up, leap frog, swinging. They are precious.


Bass Pro Shop

Her favorite place to be in the hotel.

We had lunch at Neely's BBQ. (They have a show on Food Network)

Memphis Zoo on Sunday



Abi said this was Kung Fu Panda's house. They do keep the panda's in there.

Did you know that Abi and Makayla have a twin?

We couldn't pass up this opportunity! I have always called Olivia "Buddha Baby" when her belly gets full and sticks out.

This little girl reminded us of Leslie. She went with me the first time I ever went to the Memphis Zoo. We felt it was her being there in spirit. Love you, Les!







We hit up some local shops before we went to the Museum on Monday. There are lots of adorable boutiques but their prices were insane!
Olivia started feeling puny before we left for the Children's Museum on Monday.

KayKay was ready to go!

Waiting for Daddy to pull the car up for us to load up.

Bye for now! I will post pictures from the Children's Museum in Memphis later.

Happy Spring!

Happy First Day of Spring! It is a beautiful day here. Makayla went out and played on the swing for a while. The swing set arrived yesterday. The girls were very excited, but it was chilly and sprkinling when they went out yesterday afternoon to play on it. Olivia had a tantrum when I brought her back in the house. She kept pointing at the slide and saying "Dat" and crying. It was pitiful but I finally had to just walk away from her. She could not be consoled.

I have had some problems with my blog today. It has been really slow and having a really difficult time loading pictures. I have been trying for a while to get some pictures on here and it just isn't happening today. So, as soon as this thing gets the kinks worked out, I will post pictures of "The First Play" on the swingset.

The girls and I are headed to Memphis for the weekend to kick off Abigail's Spring Break. We are going to meet Alex there. He should be there some time tomorrow. We are very very excited about getting away for a few days. We went to Memphis this time last year and it snowed! So, no Zoo last year, hopefully we can get there with the sun shinning on us this year. Olivia also did not go with us last year. She stayed with her Nana, Poppa, and Memaw. And I know she was spoiled beyond belief. The car is packed to a point of busting open. It is ridiculous what four women need for four days away. I can only imagine what family vacations will be like once they are teenagers! Mike and Marsha need to fill me in on that one :o)

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! And I am probably going to bore you for days with Memphis pictures when we get back!!! Be safe and enjoy the weather.

Don't let this picture fool you, she didn't really care for the swing too much. Her favorite is the slide.

Hello again Dr. Holt

We all had a pretty good day. I had an eye doctor appointment in Hot Springs and my Granny and Brent met me there to keep an eye on the girls.I love my eye doctor, by the way. Good choice, Nana. ;o) Brent took us all out to lunch for my birthday (Thanks Brent) and we stopped in at Ambrosia and got some sweet treats. It has been a week long birthday-celebration because Mom and Daddy took us out to eat on Saturday(thank you too).

Olivia on our way to Nana's on Saturday.


Thanks for the gift too, Brent. "The World According to Mister Rogers"


At Chili's









We played Hungry Hungry Hippo and had a good evening of playing. We are ready to see Alex! Only a few more days until we see him. Olivia saw a man walking out to his car when we were at Chili's and she screamed "DADA!" I thought the guy looked like Alex too.
Hope none of you got pinched today!